by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

ATLANTA - It was a startling development in the latest legal wrangling among Martin Luther King Jr.'s heirs.

Speaking from the pulpit of King's former church, his daughter, Rev. Bernice King, said she no longer wishes to be lumped together in the public mind with her brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter King.

"We are different people, with different minds, different ideologies," she said Thursday at Ebenezer Baptist Church. "So please, please, please do not put us in the same category."

Bernice King, who heads the King Center next door, was responding to a lawsuit filed Friday in which her brothers, as representatives of King's estate, are suing her to turn over their father's personal Bible - used by President Obama at his second inauguration - and his Nobel Peace Prize medal. She says her brothers want to sell the items to a private individual.

"This is not another King children battle and certainly not about money," she said. "This is about principle."

The complaint filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court does not mention intent to sell the items. The King Estate's attorney, William Hill, Jr., did not comment on the suit Thursday afternoon.

The complaint says that in 1995, King's heirs, including Bernice King, assigned their rights to items they inherited from their father to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., which is controlled by Dexter and Martin III.

In that agreement, the King siblings and their mother, the late Coretta Scott King, each "assigns and grants exclusively to (the King Estate) all right, title and interest to property inherited through the estate of Dr. King," according to a copy of the agreement emailed by Hill late Thursday to USA Today.

The lawsuit says that Bernice King has hidden the Bible and the medal "in an undisclosed location."

At Ebenezer, Bernice King said the objects "are hidden in plain sight. They (her brothers) know where they are. " She refused to give a location.

The King Estate is already fighting with the King Center on another legal front: Last August, during 50th anniversary celebrations of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, the estate asked a judge to stop the King Center from using Martin Luther King Jr.'s image, likeness and memorabilia. The complaint maintained that the King Center was not properly caring for materials licensed to it by the estate.

King's children have famously fought among themselves and with outsiders for years over control of their father's legacy and intellectual property.

But the fight this time seems to have struck a nerve, with many here siding with Bernice King. She was flanked Thursday by about a dozen ministers, including civil rights icon C.T. Vivian, honored last year with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and King relatives.

"This is not about money," Vivian said. "This is about dignity and worth. And the Nobel Peace Prize belongs to the American people.... It is given, but never to be sold and passed around like merchandise. Some things are sacred whether they are called that or not."

"When I learned of this lawsuit, something in me died," said Rev Timothy McDonald. "This is different. It's like selling his spiritual rights. We understand this is a spiritual issue. It's not an economic issue."